January 1863 -- Emancipation Proclamation

Lincoln depicted with Cabinet at first reading of Emancipation Proclamation. Image Source: Library of Congress

Lincoln formally issues The Emancipation Proclamation on January 1. The Proclamation declares "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." It applies, however, only to states that had seceded from the Union, not affecting those in the border states allowing slavery that had decided against secession. It also expressly excludes those parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control.

Lee's troops reach Gettysburg on June 30, with the first Union forces arriving the next day. By the morning of July 2, additional troops arrive and heavy fighting breaks out. The battle is decided on July 3 after the Confederate attack known as "Pickett's Charge" is thrown back with the loss of nearly 3,000 men, over half of the Division's forces. During the battle, over 51,000 soldiers are killed, wounded or captured, the single largest casualty total in American military history. Lee retreats south to Virginia.

Dead soldiers at Gettysburg. Image Source: Library of Congress.

After a six-week bombardment and the depletion of food and ammunition, Confederate General John Pemberton surrenders the city of Vicksburg and 30,000 men to General Grant. The capture of Port Hudson, Louisiana, shortly thereafter places the entire Mississippi River in Union control, splitting the Confederacy in two. The victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg mark the decisive swing in the War against the Confederates

General Grant begins attempts to destroy Lee's forces in Virginia. Despite inflicting heavy Union casualties in what becomes known as the Wilderness Campaign, Lee is unable to gain supplies or reinforcements. In the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House over a two-week period, Union losses reach 18,000 and Lee's armies suffer 12,000 casualties.

Republican critics of Lincoln convene on May 31 in Cleveland, one week before the Republican convention in Baltimore. Adopting the name Radical Democracy, the delegates nominate for president Union General John C. Frémont, the Republican presidential candidate in 1856, and for vice president John Cochrane of New York, a former Democratic Congressman. The party's platform calls for continuation of the war without compromise and a Constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery and authorizing federal protection of equal rights.

Grant loses over 7,000 men in twenty minutes of fighting at Cold Harbor, but Lee's fewer casualties further deplete his forces. Grant commences ten-month offensive attempting to capture Richmond by taking the railroad hub of Petersburg to its south.

Lincoln is nominated for re-election at Republican Convention. Tennessee's Andrew Johnson, a Democrat and the only U.S. senator from a seceding state to remain loyal to the Union, is chosen as the candidate for vice-president in an effort to broaden the ticket's appeal to Democratic moderates. The Republicans also change their name to the "National Union" party to emphasize their policy of reconciliation. The Democrats decide to postpone their convention until August to see how the military situation progresses. Lincoln accepts the resignation of Treasury Secretary Chase, remarking that they had come to "a point of mutual embarrassment" in their official relations.

July 1864 -- Confederates threaten Washington

Confederates attempt to divert Union troops away from Lee's army in Virginia by invading Maryland with forces under command of General Jubal Early. Confederate lines advance to within five miles of Washington, D.C., but on July 1 are forced back to Virginia.

President Lincoln vetoes the Wade-Davis Bill requiring the majority of the electorate in each Confederate state to swear past and future loyalty to the Union before the state could officially be readmitted to the Union, provoking criticism from Radical Republicans as he begins campaign for re-election.

Union General William T. Sherman leaves Chattanooga in attempt to split the South and capture Atlanta. After inflicting heavy destruction on private property in a controversial campaign, Sherman succeeds in capturing and occupying Atlanta in September.

The Democratic Party holds its delayed convention, nominating for president former General George McClellan for president on a peace platform that includes a plank declaring the war a failure and calling for an armistice and a peace convention of the states. McClellan accepts the nomination, but repudiates the platform's position on an immediate peace, and indicates that he would support continuance of slavery in the South after the War's end.

Chief Justice Roger Taney, author of the Supreme Court's majority opinion in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford, dies. Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln's former Treasury Secretary, speaks in behalf of Lincoln's re-election, possibly to improve his prospects to be appointed to fill the vacancy on the Court.

February 1865 -- Sherman advances through Carolinas; Lincoln rejects Confederate peace initiative

General Sherman moves north from Georgia through South and North Carolina, again destroying both military facilities and private property.

President Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward meet with representatives of Confederate President Jefferson Davis on the Federal steamship River Queen, which they board at Fort Monroe, Virginia. The meeting breaks up without agreement when the Confederates demand that any peace must recognize the independence of the South.

April 1865 -- Fall of Richmond and surrender at Appomattox Courthouse

Lee and Grant at Appomatox Image Source: National Park Service

General Lee is repulsed in attacks on Grant's forces near Petersburg. On April 2, Lee evacuates Richmond, and attempts to retreat west to join with other forces. Lee's retreat is blocked by Grant, and his remaining soldiers are surrounded and cut off from supplies. Grant calls upon Lee to surrender, and on April 9 Lee meets Grant at Appomattox Courthouse to sign the terms of surrender. Lee's troops are sent home on parole, allowed to keep their horses and side arms.

John Wilkes Booth Image Source: National Park Service

On the evening of April 14, Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth while watching a performance of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington. Lincoln dies the next morning at a rooming house across the street. Booth, a well-known actor, escapes to Virginia, but eleven days later is fatally shot by a Union soldier after being cornered in a barn in which he was hiding. Of nine other people implicated in the assassination, four are hanged, four imprisoned, and one acquitted.